Guernsey rowers eye Commonwealth Games opportunity
GUERNSEY will be more than happy to get behind coastal rowing when it makes its Commonwealth Games debut at Victoria 2026.
That is according to Guernsey Rowing Club captain Ben Vaudin, who said he had heard rumours about its inclusion before yesterday’s official unveiling of the 20 sports to feature in Australia.
The rowing will take on the fast and furious beach sprints format. This tasks competitors with running to their boats on the water’s edge, rowing a short, buoyed course of around 500m, and then sprinting out to the finish.
The discipline welcomes various classes, from singles to quads, and Vaudin believes that there is already interest in sending a few Guernsey teams – provided it is logistically possible.
‘From what I’ve heard and the few people I have mentioned it to, we would definitely be tempted to put a Guernsey team together to try and do that, if we could,’ he said.
‘We have to look at other classes where we have interest from people in going over and competing.’
Vaudin has also praised the spectator-friendly nature of the beach sprints format, which is growing in popularity globally.
‘It’s a really interesting format and I think the reason they have done it is rowing up and down the coastline is not as good for spectators,’ he said.
‘It’s great if you can go on a guard boat and get up close ... but being offshore or coastal in nature, it’s pretty tricky to watch, whereas beach sprints, we can potentially make a good spectator event out of it. It’s quite exciting.’
Golf and BMX are the two other new disciplines set to make an appearance, while shooting returns after its unusual omission from the Birmingham 2022 programme.
Island men’s golf team captain Dave Jeffery sees the sport as an interesting inclusion and would also welcome Guernsey participation.
‘It certainly would be a great opportunity for some of the youngsters who are already scratch and 1-2 handicaps – in four years’ time, they are likely to be even better,’ he said.
With the 2026 Games taking the unusual approach of spreading disciplines around the state of Victoria, a full programme of event locations is set to be announced in coming weeks.
